Pinsky don't seem to be in any kind of hurry. Roughly three years following their first EP, the intriguing Two for the Road (with a two-song release mixed in last year), the four-piece are ready with a debut full-length on Sinking Ship Records. Losing Touch is worth the wait. Clearly, the band have used the time to craft and fine-tune songs that are planted firmly in the emo-rock legacy, but that evince an attention to detail and artful touch that separate them from simple genre pieces.

Best about the band are the give-and-take vocals of Pete Vachon and Jeff Roberts, the rare duo who manage to not fall into a lead-singer/backing-singer paradigm, even within songs, but manage to come across simply as two singers both working on the same song, with different roles. They sing like they play guitar, each throwing out riffs, intertwining with one another, being supportive when the other wanders out on a limb.

Both balance on the edge of scream and sing, cracking and warbling at times in ways that must leave them red-faced (it's emo, after all), but the overarching vibe is one of comforting melody and an endearing desire for you to like them. They love to sing about their friends, address girlfriends new and old, create an intimate space you sometimes feel a little uncomfortable intruding upon.

"Half Full" is the best of the 10 tracks here, hard charging in the open, but then dialing back to a couple of harmonics and a plea: "I want to talk to you again/So pleaaaaaasssssseeeeee/Be my friend." Michael Graton's bass lick here is a great hook, and it's hard not to like how they riff on the central line of "it's about how you laugh it off," letting Vachon's voice try any number of ways of letting those words escape his mouth.

The production is surprisingly light-touched, too, so you often feel right in the room with them, and Andre Tranchemontagne's drums are mixed low and clean (some might say thin) so that the songs are approachable. Like you could sit among them, even as they're playing at full bore. When there's a cutaway to just a naked snare and the chunked guitars in the opening "Losing Touch," the lack of reverb makes it all the more stark.

They get kind of proggy in their guitar noodlings, as in the opening of "Hesitation" or in the backing of the closing "States," resembling Built to Spill at times with the guitar focus. The rhythm can be halting and staccato, which may leave you a little edgy and anxious.

But that's the goal. They take up 2:16 to tell you to "fuck monotony," with their most aggressive and shouted vocals, but make sure to let you know, "I'm happier than you think." It's a pretty common sentiment that those who sing the most about violence and aggressiveness are often the most gentle and level-headed in real-life. There might be something to the fact that those who write most about heartache and loss are those that grieve the least and live life the most.

O'Brother | Garden Window O'Brother's bio for their debut album, Garden Window, reads in part: "Native American tradition believed taking a picture of someone also took a piece of their soul. O'Brother views this album in the same vein. It captures a piece of them at a time in their lives that they will never get back."

Brite Futures | Dark Past A few years ago, the cutesy teens in Natalie Portman's Shaved Head slid out of Seattle on the hot pink shoulders of robo-bounce kinda-hit "Me + Ur Daughter" and the cheap intrigue of a ridiculous moniker.

Dr. Dog | Be the Void With Be the Void , their sonically raw sixth album, these Philly psych-pop oddballs have pulled a fussy, self-conscious about-face, indulging in their weirdest ideas in years.

Interview: Alice Bag of Stay at Home Bomb Alice Bag (nee Armendariz), who shone bright in the Los Angeles punk scene of the late-1970s, will be in town Saturday to read from her book Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage and to play a few tunes at 7 pm at Rochambeau Library.

Dr. Dog is the drug On their current trek, promoting their playful and raw seventh album, Be the Void (Anti-), Dr. Dog have reached headliner status, playing the biggest, most tightly packed rooms of their career.

The quiet side of A Place To Bury Strangers When you are surrounded with those jagged barbs of sheer bloody noise for the first time, do you run for the hills or continue to stick your head in the acid bath? It only takes a few seconds of luxuriating in the stinging audio hailstorm that is A Place To Bury Strangers to know how a young Oliver Ackermann reacted to the noise threshold test.

Sleep | Dopesmoker [re-issue] In the early-'90s metal drought, a strange strain developed through the cracks in the pavement, as downtuned strings, sluggish tempos, and vintage amplification led to the blossoming of stoner rock.

TALL HORSE, SHORT ALBUM | October 16, 2014 If Slainte did nothing more than allow Nick Poulin the time and space to get Tall Horse together, its legacy may be pretty well secure. Who knows what will eventually come of the band, but Glue, as a six-song introduction to the world, is a damn fine work filled with highly listenable, ’90s-style indie rock.

REVIVING VIVA NUEVA | October 11, 2014 15 years ago last week, Rustic Overtones appeared on the cover of the third-ever issue of the Portland Phoenix .

RODGERS, OVER AND OUT | October 11, 2014 It’s been a long time since standing up and pounding on a piano and belting out lyrics has been much of a thing.